The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

by Barry Schwartz

Now students are required to make choices about education that may affect them for the rest of their lives. And they are forced to make these choices at a point in their intellectual development when they may lack the resources to make them intelligently.

In a recent survey, 93 percent of teenage girls surveyed said that shopping was their favorite activity. Mature women also say they like shopping, but working women say that shopping is a hassle, as do most men.

we have a tendency to look around at what others are doing and use them as a standard of comparison.

we have too many choices, too many decisions, too little time to do what is really important.

Americans spent about $27 billion on nontraditional remedies, most of them unproven.

And once people are in the position to be able to work at any time from any place, they face decisions every minute of every day about whether or not to be working.

CHOOSING WELL IS DIFFICULT, AND MOST DECISIONS HAVE SEVERAL different dimensions.

Unfortunately, the proliferation of choice in our lives robs us of the opportunity to decide for ourselves just how important any given decision is.

If you seek and accept only the best, you are a maximizer.

We are surrounded by modern, time-saving devices, but we never seem to have enough time.

choose less and feel better.

when faced with overwhelming choice, we are forced to become “pickers,” which is to say, relatively passive selectors from whatever is available. Being a chooser is better, but to have the time to choose more and pick less, we must be willing to rely on habits, customs, norms, and rules to make some decisions automatic.

IT IS MAXIMIZERS WHO SUFFER MOST IN A CULTURE THAT PROVIDES too many choices.

Learning to accept “good enough” will simplify decision making and increase satisfaction.